Active Edge Sites Engineering on Amorphous Co-Mn Spinel-Based Oxides for Efficient Peroxymonosulfate Activation

Area of Science:

• Heterogeneous catalysis
• Materials science
• Environmental chemistry

Background:

• Defect engineering of edge active sites is crucial for Fenton-like reactions.
• Large-scale manufacturing of efficient catalysts remains a challenge.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a scalable method for preparing porous CoMn2O4 with abundant active edge sites.
• To enhance peroxymonosulfate (PMS)-based Fenton-like activation for pollutant degradation.

Main Methods:

• A general wet-chemical approach was used to synthesize porous CoMn2O4 without templates or heat treatment.
• The material's Turing-type structure facilitates active site exposure and PMS adsorption.
• The CoMn2O4/PMS system was tested for pollutant removal efficiency and stability.

Main Results:

• Porous CoMn2O4 with abundant active edge sites and oxygen-rich vacancies was successfully synthesized at scale.
• The CoMn2O4/PMS system achieved 99.8% pollutant degradation within 5 minutes, with stable performance over seven cycles.
• Dominant nonradical singlet oxygen (1O2) pathways were identified for pollutant degradation.

Conclusions:

• The developed CoMn2O4 catalyst shows high efficiency and stability for PMS-based Fenton-like degradation of organic pollutants.
• The material demonstrates potential for large-scale wastewater treatment applications, including in real river and pharmaceutical wastewater.
• This work provides a framework for designing low-cost, efficient heterogeneous PMS-activation catalysts via defect engineering.